Mobile operators will lose $2.5 billion next year to business messaging providers such as Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp, up 20% from 2021, said Juniper Research Wednesday. Promotional messages will account for nearly a third of the revenue loss as businesses increasingly use messaging for rich media marketing campaigns. SMS business messages will reach 1.7 trillion next year, up from 1.6 trillion in 2022, it said. SMS use will be strong at retail, with operator-led messaging channels in multi-factor authentication tracking along with the growth of e-commerce, Juniper said.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association supports Amazon’s advocacy for allowing unmanned aerial vehicle radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058), said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-264. “GAMA recognizes the importance of allowing for the use of 60 GHz band unlicensed devices on-board aircraft, to include drones while airborne, as an enabler for UAS commercial package delivery operations,” the group said. Members believe field disturbance sensor (FDS) devices operating in the 60 GHz band “will not cause harmful interference to other spectrum users,” GAMA said: “Radar devices in this frequency range operate at a relatively low EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power), the nearest frequency band that is used on aircraft is 24 GHz, and there [is] existing communications equipment using this same band at the same power where no harmful interference has been observed.”

Public Knowledge raised concerns about proposals by aviation groups to further delay the deployment of 5G in the C-band near airports (see 2211160075), in a call with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. A recent report by the Institute for Telecommunications Science “confirms that only those planes with older altimeters that listen out-of-band are at risk of experiencing harmful interference, and that even this modest risk will be eliminated by upgrading these altimeters in accordance with the FAA’s recently adopted standard,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-122. “This is not simply a ‘technical matter,’ or merely an inconvenience for the licensees,” PK said: “As a consequence of systemic discrimination and historic patterns of red-lining, many of the neighborhoods closest to airports (and therefore within the ‘buffer zones’ around the airports subject to the mitigation measures) are low income and/or majority non-white communities. For many such households, mobile broadband service is the primary means of internet access. Delaying, or worse permanently preventing, deployment of significant capacity needed for mobile 5G services has a disproportionate impact on these communities -- further aggravating inequality and exclusion.”

Verizon asked to be exempted from filing data on its 3G network as part of a broadband data collection information filing due at the FCC Dec. 31. Verizon noted it plans to shutter the 3G network just three days later, on Jan. 3. Waiving the obligation “will avoid consumer confusion, avoid unnecessary work, and serve the public interest by ensuring that the public has useful information,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-195.

UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel recommended the FCC do "additional fact-finding and rulemaking to update the criteria for the 5G Fund and maximize its efficiency in bringing high-speed mobile broadband connectivity to rural Americans,” in separate meetings with FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. The meetings were on the 5G Fund and the company’s work on deploying C-band spectrum, UScellular said in filings posted Tuesday in docket 20-32 (see here and here). The CEO earlier spoke with Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2211170067).

Representatives from Miami-Dade County and APCO asked for help from the FCC, alleging interference in the 6 GHz band is keeping the county from using a new communications system. “Miami-Dade cannot fully utilize its new 6 GHz microwave system for the life-safety communications it was designed for until the interference is resolved,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Officials met with staff from the Enforcement and Public Safety bureaus. An investigation tied the interference to part 15 devices used in an enterprise system managed by CitySpan, the filing said: “Interference … was causing a significant increase in noise floor and reduction in receiver threshold for the microwave links impacted. Identifying the source of interference was particularly difficult because the device’s frequency hopping made the interference inconsistent.” San Francisco-based CitySpan didn’t comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology extended by 14 days the initial and reply comment deadlines on the 12.7 GHz notice of inquiry approved by commissioners in October (see 2210270046). The Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge asked for an extra 21 days, satellite operators 14 days, the FCC noted Tuesday. “We conclude that extension of the comment and reply comment deadlines to December 12 ... and January 10, ... respectively, will provide interested parties with additional time to prepare comments and reply comments that respond to the important issues raised in the NOI, and no party will be adversely affected by this extension." Said a filing by the public interest groups, posted Tuesday in docket 22-352: “The current schedule affords commenters only 30 days from adoption of the NOI to consider the Commission’s inquiry, gather information, and compose comments ... This is unusually challenging because of the very wide scope of the Commission’s inquiry. … Importantly, and unlike most Commission proceedings, the 12.7-13.25 GHz proceeding does not concern a frequency band that has been extensively considered and debated previously.”

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, the Commercial Drone Alliance and the Small UAV Coalition jointly supported Amazon’s calls for allowing unmanned aerial vehicle radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058). “We all work closely with users across the whole drone delivery ecosystem and support the authorization of the use of unlicensed field disturbance sensor (FDS) devices onboard drones in the 60 GHz band,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264. “As with most aviation safety systems, redundancy is a best practice, so FDS with both horizontal and vertical transmission would provide the most benefit and risk reduction,” the groups said: “This enhances drone safety, reducing the risk to both people and property in the air and on the ground, which is clearly in the public interest.”

CNH Industrial America updated the FCC on a proposal from last year that the FCC permit agricultural transportation safety messages to transmit in the 5.9 GHz band at a level of up to one watt in rural areas. “Approving our request for this increased power level in rural areas would allow agricultural transportation safety messages to transmit more easily and over greater distances,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138. “We also discussed that action to grant our proposal is critically important to users of agricultural vehicles, which typically operate in open areas (rather than on a commercial roadway); and that agricultural vehicle operators would benefit from the ability to transmit with greater certainty over physically larger areas.”

Amazon told FCC Wireless Bureau staff it's important to allow low-flying drone radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058), said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-264. “Amazon explained that the Commission should enable innovative radar applications for near ground drone operations in the 60-64 GHz band because they are similar to other non-airborne 60 GHz devices currently allowed under the Commission’s rules,” Amazon said: “Amazon also discussed how the unique characteristics of innovative 60 GHz radar technologies would enhance the safety of drone operations in the U.S. by improving a drone’s ability to sense and avoid persons and obstacles in and near its path without causing harmful interference to other spectrum users.”